St. Petersburg Medical Malpractice Lawyers
When people hear “medical malpractice,” they usually picture a doctor making a mistake in an operating room. Our $2.6 million verdict in Pinellas County didn’t involve a surgeon at all. It involved a speech therapist whose failure to properly manage a patient’s swallowing problems contributed to a young mother’s wrongful death claim.
That case still sits with us, because it’s a reminder of a fact most families do not appreciate until it’s too late: medical malpractice isn’t limited to physicians.
If you are trying to understand whether your loved one’s injury or death was the result of malpractice, even though the person responsible was not a doctor, our St. Petersburg medical malpractice lawyers can provide answers. The consultation is free. For over 25 years, the Fernandez Firm has recovered over $100 Million for Florida families.
No. Any licensed healthcare provider can be held liable, including nurses, speech-language pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, and physician assistants.
Speech-language pathologists are specifically responsible for diagnosing and managing dysphagia, a swallowing disorder that, if mismanaged, can lead to aspiration pneumonia: a serious lung infection caused by food, liquid, or saliva entering the airway instead of the stomach. This is common in stroke patients, elderly patients, and anyone recovering from a major illness or surgery.
When a speech therapist fails to properly assess a patient’s swallowing ability, recommends an unsafe diet texture, or doesn’t flag warning signs to the rest of the care team, the consequences can be fatal. That’s exactly what happened to our client’s mother, and the basis of our multi-million dollar Pinellas County jury verdict.